Healing
by Crysania
Summary: Part 4 of the Catatonic!Belle series. A newly freed Belle confronts Regina (prompted by Emospritelet). Sequel to Secrets, Broken, and Chaos


Regina has been captured, put behind bars. Belle finds she's thankful for that. For the time being, the Queen cannot get to her. She cannot get to her love. They are free, though she knows it's only a matter of time before Snow White and Prince Charming decide her fate. She suspects after their long history that Regina will be out again, free.

Free to come after her.

Free to try to steal her away from Rumplestiltskin again.

Free to harm her.

"I need to see her," Belle says one evening as they while away their time in the living room of the house she's quickly coming to see as her own. Rumplestiltskin has made sure she knows it's her home, but also that it doesn't _have_ to be. She is no longer the caretaker for his estate. And as such, he has given her her freedom.

She chooses to remain with him. After all this time, she _wants_ to be with him.

"See who, my love?" He's distracted by whatever it is he's working on and she cannot help but smile. He's brought magic here. He needs to find his son, he's told her. And so she reads and he works on figuring out how to cross the town line and it's so much like their days in the Dark Castle that she often slips right back into that mindset.

Except it _is_ different here. Here they can kiss. Here they can admit their love to each other. Here everything is _better_.

"The Queen," she responds with and finally his head shoots up.

"Regina? Whyever do you want to see _her_?" He sounds shocked at her statement.

"She locked me up in her tower for _years_, Rumple. Then she locked me up in my own mind." She shudders at all she's been through, all she remembers from her cursed state. She never _actually_ lived it out. In truth she had been in that catatonic state for the entirety of the curse, but she _remembers_ it. She remembers falling in love with the town monster. She remembers people's scorn, her father's begging her to stay. She remembers their marriage, their wedding night, though she blushes at that thought. She remembers the fights, the "I told you so's" from people after their very public fight. And she remembers the accident, though those memories are hazier than the rest. She tried to leave, Rumplestiltskin tells her. And no one could leave Regina's cursed town

Rumplestiltskin sighs and instantly he is at her side, prostate. His bad ankle must hurt as he comes down on his knees and she sees the joint attempt to bend. It's covered in scar tissue and stiff. "Oh sweetheart," he murmurs and kisses her hand. "If I could…"

"I know, love." She reaches out to brush the hair back from his eyes. Beautiful eyes, really, brown and human and so _sincere_. She loved his otherworldly appearance back in their homeland, but he's easier to read now. "But it's a part of me. And I need to confront it. I need to confront _her_."

The look he gives her tells her he's been waiting for this, but so very hopeful that it wouldn't come to pass. Finally he speaks. "No one decides your fate but you."

"And she did," she says simply.

"Yes." And no more needs to be said. He escorts her out of the house. He'll take her to the sheriff's station, but no further. This is something she has to do alone and she won't have him lurking in the background, all malevolence and promises of retribution. That isn't why she's doing this, after all. She's doing this for _her_.

Because she has to.

Because if she doesn't face her demons they may haunt her for the rest of her life.

She's stronger than that. And so she steps into the office. It's quiet in there. Dark. Emma has left for the day and so it will be just her and Regina. Alone. Rumplestiltskin is somewhere outside. He's only a phone call or a scream away. But Regina does not have magic. That much he has assured her of. She's not strong enough, smart enough, practiced enough. She cannot tap into that which he has brought and so he alone commands all the magic of Storybrooke.

No doubt it's thrilling for him, knowing he has so much power while everyone else remains powerless.

She sees Regina sitting alone in her cell. The one next to hers is unoccupied, likely more by design than chance. They wouldn't allow anyone near her at this point. For a moment Belle almost feels sorry for her.

But then she realizes it's been only one day since she was locked up. One day and Regina is already looking annoyed and bored, leaning up against the wall and staring upward as if she could find a way out if she just stares hard enough. As she watches, she sees her wave her hand in the air and then grimace.

"Can't access the magic, can you?" Belle says by way of introduction.

Regina startles, just slightly, before turning to face her.

"I'm surprised he allowed you to come here."

"He doesn't _allow_ anything. Despite what you may think, I'm my own person." She stands a little taller as she walks further into the room.

"Are you sure he didn't bewitch you?" Regina asks the words with a sardonic twist, but Belle knows there's a bit of seriousness there hidden behind them. She, like so many others, cannot believe she could fall in love with Rumplestiltskin.

"Quite sure." And she smiles. She thinks of her love as she does, his feral smiles and the darkness that still lurks just below the surface. She feels some of that darkness inside her. How could she not, after all she's endured? She's the same person and yet not. There's a steel core inside her and yet she feels hollow.

"And so you came here because…" Belle can hear Regina trying to school her voice into boredom but she hears something else tucked up underneath the carefully spoken words. Fear. There is a real fear there, perhaps not of Belle. But Belle knows all she would have to do is say the words and Rumplestiltskin would destroy Regina. It's a heady feeling, a little disconcerting. She has so much more power than she ever thought she would wield and it all comes with the love of a man who believes he's a monster.

She won't let him fall prey to that. That's why she's here. To say what has to be said, to confront Regina on her own terms and leave her to face her fate alone, at the hands of Snow White and her Prince, rather than at the hands of the dark sorcerer who she _knows_ is ready and most willing to remove this old enemy.

"To see you," Belle says simply. And she sees the understanding dawn in her eyes.

"You're here to gloat."

Belle shakes her head. "No."

"Of course not," Regina says quickly. "That's more your _true love's_ style."

"It is," Belle agrees. There's a fondness in her voice. She knows who he is. She loves him anyway, flaws and dark side and all. She's not afraid to show that. Not to him. And certainly not to Regina.

"So what _are_ you here for, Miss French?"

Belle bites her lip and feels a little laugh bubble up. "Miss French? Oh no. Don't you remember your own curse? I believe it would be Mrs. Gold in this world."

Regina seems somewhat taken aback. "You remember?"

"Everything, it seems." She says no more. Regina knows what she is hinting at. The curse. It wasn't completely under her control. She had never planned for Belle to wake up. "You were going to kill me before the curse broke."

Regina gives her an assessing look and then leans back against the wall of her cell. "Yes."

"Are you counting off the days?"

"What?"

"The days. Are you counting them down, scratching a mark into the wall for each day you are in this cell." Belle steps forward and lightly touches the bars before backing away again. She won't get close enough to Regina to allow her any influence over her. Regina does not respond to her question. "I did, you know. Back in our world, stuck in your tower. One mark on the wall for every day that I spent there, away from my true love, trapped. One mark on the wall for each day I hoped you'd let your guard drop so I could call for him. One mark on the wall for each day of boredom with nothing to read and nothing to do." She cocked her head to the side. "Do you know how many marks I made?"

Regina's eyebrows rise and her eyes widen slightly, though she does not get any words out before Belle speaks again.

"576." She waits for that to sink in, wonders if Regina will ever come to regret what she did to her. "576 days that passed before the curse spread to my lonely little tower, before it released me from your prison and put me in another one. Do you know how long _that_ was? Over 10,000 days. _Ten thousand_." It's hard to fathom, really. While others were going about their day, really nearly the same day over and over again, she was stuck in a chair. Only the curse's strange effect of freezing time kept her muscles from atrophying.

"What is your point?" Regina is starting to sound impatient, anxious for Belle to disappear.

"None you would understand," Belle says with a shrug. "I just wanted to see."

"See?"

"Yes. See you where I once was, let you imagine my agony for even a short time." Belle cannot imagine her former self doing such a thing, but her time has marked her, changed her. She's not sure she'll ever be the same again, though she'll work toward that, toward being who she was before all this tainted her.

Regina remains silent and Belle finally sighs, steps forward again. She pulls something out of the bag that she has draped over her shoulder and pushes it through the bars. Regina is instantly on her feet. "What's this?"

Belle lets out a small laugh. "Nothing that can harm you."

Regina steps closer, glancing down at the object on the floor. "Henry's book?"

A soft smile graces Belle's face as she watches the fallen Queen pick it up. "I thought it might help."

"To alleviate the boredom?" Regina sounds surprised.

"No."

"Then?"

"To help you understand us all. I think you need it." With those final words, she gives Regina one last long, sad look and turns toward the door.

"Thank you," comes the soft words from behind her. "Belle."

She doesn't acknowledge the words with more than a pause and a small nod and then she's out the door.

Rumplestiltskin is there almost immediately, materializing at her side as if had simply been hidden in the shadows. "Did you get what you needed?" There is concern in his voice. And fear. He was afraid for her, alone in the jail with Regina.

"Yes," Belle says after a lengthy silence. "Yes, I think I did." They leave together then, quiet in their contemplation. Rumplestiltskin wraps an arm around her and she leans into him. There is much healing that needs to be done, for both of them really. But she knows, as she can feel the strength of his arm and he can feel the strength of her determination, that they will find their way together.


End file.
